"Well..." Rui scratched his head. "I can't take full credit for that. Kane actually played a pretty important role as well."
"Really?" Fiona raised an eyebrow at Kane.
"My man doesn't lie." Kane smirked, turning to Fiona. "We haven't met in like, what, three or four years?"
"We would have met a year ago if you'd won the preliminary contest." She retorted.
"Boo. No thanks, I'm good." Kane waved her away.
"Alright alright." Rui intervened. "Let's all go catch some rest. We shouldn't rely on potions when we don't have to because that reduces the probability that we'll be able to use potions when we need to."
It was the norm to have sleep taken care of as soon as a mission was completed since that was the only it could be guaranteed that a sleep cycle wouldn't clash with the deployment of the Martial Apprentices on a mission. Rui had learned to become more aware of his sleep cycles since he could no longer merrily stay awake for extended periods of time.
The rest of them concurred, participating in the war wasn't something that could be considered light work, regardless of one's prowess.
The five of them returned back to their lodges, looking to get as much rest as they could for the day before their next mission.
Which, much to their surprise didn't come too quickly.
The attack launched by the Kandrian Empire was more than just a simple attack. Or at least, it ended up growing to be much more than that.
The Kandrian Empire's attack on the Sekigahara Confederate left it in a position of vulnerability and weakness as far as border security and military assets went. However, this position of vulnerability wouldn't last long and all the countries knew it.
The Britannian Empire, which was also adjacent to the Sekigahara Confederate, had chosen to exploit this moment of weakness created by the Kandrian Empire to launch its own devastating attack on the momentarily exposed territory of the Sekigahara Confederate.
Many Martial Apprentices, potion users, and siege tanks marched toward the Sekigahara Confederate as fast as they could. This was a far more dedicated and invested war effort. It could not even be called an assault team. This was a marching legion. It was an open brazen declaration of war.
The Sekigahara Confederate hastily stopped the reconstruction process that they had begun just a day prior, having been forced to invest even more militaristic capital into mustering a defensive and counter-offensive war effort.
The clash lasted for days. It dwarfed the Kandrian Empire's operation on the Sekigahara Confederate by a large margin.
However, things became even more chaotic when the Republic of Gorteau launched an attack on the Britannian Empire. Something that had not been foreseen by anybody.
Even the Britannian Empire couldn't fight a war on two sides. The army that had been sent to chip away even further at the Sekigahara Confederate had been ordered to retreat immediately and return to the base territory of the Britannian Empire to aid in repelling the attack from the Republic of Gorteau.
However, once the Britannian army returned back to the Britannian territory, the army from the Republic of Gorteau also immediately retreated as soon as the reinforcements arrived.
And finally, there was silence.
The Kandrian Empire simply spectated the chain reaction that its actions had caused with amused intrigue. It took a while for the intelligence departments of all the countries to gather all the information needed to have a good understanding of why what unfolded actually unfolded the way it did.
"The Republic of Gorteau has formed an alliance with the Sekigahara Confederate?" Commissioner Feristen frowned as he read some reports.
"Indeed." Colonel Carnes nodded. "Of course, this is far from a philanthropic move. The strategic department has already established why."
"The Republic of Gorteau stands the most to lose if the Britannian Empire and the Kandrian Empire gang up on the Sekigahara Confederate." Commissioner Feristen noted.
"Indeed." Colonel Carnes affirmed. "The Republic of Gorteau is the furthest away from the Sekigahara Confederate compared to the Britannian Empire and the Kandrian Empire within the Serevian Dungeon, geographically."
The four nations' territories had slowed down at the core of the Serevian Dungeon which was still up for grabs. The Kandrian Empire's territory faced the Britannian Empire's territory which was the most distant to it, and the Sekigahara Confederate faced the Republic of Gorteau, which was also the most distant to it.
The Sekigahara Confederate was adjacent to the Kandrian Empire and the Britannian Empire, the latter two were much closer to the Sekigahara Confederate than the Republic of Gorteau was.
What this ultimately meant was that if the Sekigahara Confederate was forced to yield some territory or halt expansion activities in order to stabilize, then only the Kandrian Empire and the Britannian Empire would monopolize the yielded territory. The Republic of Gorteau would be too far to be able to claim and the Kandrian Empire and the Britannian Empire would not tolerate its claim on the new territory.
Once the two empires gained more territory in the core of the Serevian Dungeons, it was quite likely they would end up being the 'winners' of the Serevian Dungeon while the Republic of Gorteau and the Sekigahara Confederate would end up being the losers.
This was not something that either the Sekigahara Confederate or the Republic of Gorteau were willing to tolerate. An alliance had already formed after the Kandrian Empire's initial attack.
The Republic of Gorteau forced the Britannian Empire to retreat, giving the Sekigahara Confederate respite it needed to restore its border security and replenish its militaristic capital.
There was temporary silence once that particular chain of events ended. However, the ice had already been broken. The four super nations had finally clashed with each other. It was inevitable, but its timing was unclear.
The Sekigahara Confederate and the Republic of Gorteau had predicted the Britannian Empire would draw first, yet to everyone's surprise, it had been the Kandrian Empire.
